Sleep Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors of Professional Male Rugby League Athletes: Does Knowledge Translate Into Practice?

OBJECTIVE

To describe sleep behaviors of male rugby league athletes and examine the association with self-reported sleep behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge.

METHODS

Twenty-two rugby league athletes completed 7 consecutive nights of sleep monitoring using wrist-worn ActiGraphy, with the Sleep Practices and Attitudes Questionnaire completed at the commencement of the monitoring period. ActiGraphy measures included time in-bed (hh:mm), time out-of-bed (hh:mm), duration in bed (minutes), sleep duration (minutes), sleep efficiency (percentages), sleep onset latency (minutes), wake after sleep onset (minutes), and number of awakenings. The Sleep Practices and Attitudes Questionnaire assessed self-reported sleep behaviors, sleep hygiene practices, and sleep knowledge. Linear regressions determined associations between objective sleep measures and subjective self-reported sleep behaviors, sleep knowledge, and sleep attitudes.

RESULTS

Sleep behaviors showed mean bedtime at 10:25 PM (45) minutes and wake time 6:30 AM (25) minutes, with 484 (41) minutes in bed. Sleep efficiency was 73% (5%), resulting in a sleep duration of 355 (42) minutes. In contrast, subjective data reported sleep duration as 7.5 (1.0) hours. A small association was observed between lower objective sleep efficiency and longer subjective sleep duration (P < .05, r2 = .21). Earlier bedtimes related to better coping with chronic insomnia (r2 = .23, P = .02) but showed small associations with greater in-bed activities (r2 = .25, P < .05). Longer time in bed and increased sleep duration had small associations with poorer coping with chronic insomnia strategies (r2 = .25 and r2 = .24, respectively; P < .05). No associations existed between sleep behaviors and sleep knowledge (P < .05).

CONCLUSIONS

Suboptimal sleep duration (<8 h) and efficiency (<85%) exist in this cohort of players, despite high sleep knowledge. Therefore, sleep education needs to consider influencing factors on sleep behaviors when designing sleep education programs.